Wednesday 18th November - Part 2

Waiting in line for my bags to be searched it was clear to see that it was late in the afternoon. The 7 bag-checkers were stood around with 1 open suitcase and very little action. With the minutes ticking down, i was finally called forward to hand my landing card over. One glance at it and they disappeared off to the office behind. I have to admit, at this point I was starting to worry that they were preparing some rubber gloves! The card was passed from person to person, evidently working its way up the chain of command to see what had to be done. Eventually I was called over to a table. Considering the delicate nature of my packing, I was dreading having to take everything out. Both items of hand luggage were stuffed full, my skis had been eased into their bag surrounded by clothing and the bag was busting at the seams. The rest of my clothes were vacuum packed to save space.... to unpack it all now would take hours! "You got a work permit now?" I was asked. As soon as I said yes, he handed my passport back, and waved me through. 15 minutes of checking paperwork, and the buck being passed from person to person to check whether I had a permit.... perfect. I made a mad dash to the arrivals area, searching left right and centre for the reception desk for my transport. As i walked up to the desk, the cute blonde behind it looked up and smiled. "Hi Rob, we're holding the coach for you - i'l show you where it's waiting." Before I could even say a word I'd been welcomed and directed to the coach.

Finally able to sit down and relax, but with no chance to have contacted my new house mates, no chance to have called anyone to say i'd arrived safely. It was time - time to do what id not planned on being able to do. I turned my mobile phone on! Many data charges later to try contact my new housemates, and a text back home to say I'd arrived and I'd roamed in Canada! The coach journey was otherwise blissfully uneventful. Perhaps due to the size of the country and how dispersed all the houses were, everywhere was pitch black. Which just gave even more emphasis to the bizarre road systems. The main "motorway" had sets of traffic lights with regular intersections along, and it was great to see that even driving on the wrong side of the road, lane discipline was just as bad over here too!

Thankfully, the coach does door to door stops, and so the driver called me up and he parked up outside. Dumping my bags on the snow covered ground - i was pointed at 413. Which had 2 doors. The driver smirked and drove off. Having dragged my bags infront of both of them I stood there trying to decide which one I had to go through, my hands frozen and my gloves too far away, so I couldn't even toss a coin for it. Instead, I knocked on both at the same time! Moments later both doors flew open, both had been opened by girls! The boys had apparantly and shotgunned not getting the door, and instead left it to the girls to see who the strange knocking was. Within minutes I was in the stood in the kitchen meeting everyone over a beer. They'd been waiting for me to arrive to head out for dinner - Subways! Hundreds of miles away and in another country and I was eating Subway. But its not subway like we have back home, for a start they had changed the breads around. The standard choice of hearty italian had been scrapped and replaced with parmessan and oregano, and they had a new option - Flatbread. The slowest serving time ever experienced was fillled with intricate detail of Subway breads and how confused we all were.

From dinner, we headed to the "cheapest place to drink" and got the pitchers in, where we were eventually joined by the remainder of the Cougar challet residents. All 12 of us sat around and chatting, with the Canadian open mic night going on. To fully celebrate the Cougar lodge completion we decided to make a full night of it, and we got a group photo at the same time!

Cougar Crew

Many bars later we called it a night, having introduced me to pitchers, the cheapest 2 bars and so many other sights and sounds, at 9.30am UK i finally called it a night and settled down to sleep in what would be my bed for the next 7 months.